Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to a print apparatus that carries out a print job to which binding processing is set.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known binding processing for aligning a plurality of sheets with data printed thereon and then binding them together, as one of post-processing functions performable by print apparatuses. In the early days, the print apparatuses used to be unequipped with a mechanism for displacing a binding unit for realizing the binding processing, and therefore used to be only able to perform the binding processing at a fixed single position. On the other hand, it is known to allow the binding processing to be performed at each corner of a printout by combining an image rotation with switching between normal order printing, which prints pages sequentially, starting from a first page, and reverse order printing, which prints pages sequentially, starting from a last page (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-88375).
Further, it is also known to configure the binding unit for realizing the binding processing to be displaceable, thereby displacing the binding unit to a binding position specified by a user to bind a sheet bundle there.
Various binding methods have been contrived as a binding method for binding the sheet bundle, and examples thereof include a binding method that binds the sheet bundle with use of a generally known staple, a binding method that binds the sheet bundle by welding toner onto the binding position, and a binding method that binds the sheet bundle without use of a binding member such as a staple for stapling.
Providing the print apparatus with a plurality of binding units has been conceived as a measure to expand the binding function performable by the print apparatuses. One possible configuration in this case is to mix the binding unit capable of performing the binding processing at a plurality of positions by being displaced, and the binding unit configured to perform the binding processing at a fixed position, according to a space in the apparatus where the binding units are mounted, cost, and the like.
Now, the print apparatuses can reverse a sheet via a conveyance path provided for reversing the sheet in terms of a back side and a front side thereof. However, the sheet may be wrinkled and/or bent due to a curvature or a bend of the conveyance path and/or under an influence of a roller, resulting in a reduction in a quality of the printout, depending on a type of the sheet. Therefore, the print apparatuses should control an operation so as to refrain from reversing such a sheet.
Then, if the sheets are bound together by the binding unit capable of performing the binding processing at the plurality of positions by being displaced, the binding processing can be performed at each corner or on each side of the printout without requiring the sheets to be conveyed via the conveyance path that reverses the sheets, provided that this is one-sided printing.
On the other hand, if the sheets are bound together by the binding unit configured to perform the binding processing at the fixed position, the sheets may have to be subject to the reverse order printing. Therefore, even at the time of the one-sided printing, the sheets should be reversed via the conveyance path that reverses the sheets in terms of the front sides and the back sides thereof. However, the quality of the printout may reduce, if the bound sheets are sheets of a type that causes the sheets to be wrinkled and/or bent due to the conveyance thereof through the conveyance path provided for reversing the sheets, like the above-described sheet type.